


The boys with golden eyes

by redshadowalchemist



Series: The three sons of Hohenheim [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, First Meetings, Gen, Homunculi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:01:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26066902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redshadowalchemist/pseuds/redshadowalchemist
Summary: They were beautiful boys, as William had been. As Envy desperately tried not to be.Or, Envy meets Edward and Alphonse for the first time.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric & Envy, Alphonse Elric & Envy, Edward Elric & Envy, Trisha Elric/Van Hohenheim
Series: The three sons of Hohenheim [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891093
Comments: 1
Kudos: 34





	The boys with golden eyes

Envy may stay with Dante out of his desire for the stone, he needs a gifted alchemist knowledgeable about all sorts of forbidden arts, but that simply makes Hohenheim surplus to requirements. He despises Hohenheim and he doesn't have the usefullness of Dante to spare him.

In fact it would be better if he were dead regardless of Envy's hatred for him. Dante may have some residul feelings for the bastard which may stay her hand even if he moves against her. Besides, on the subject of residual feelings she has some for Envy, while Hohenheim clearly has none. She trusts him and would like twice about attempting to destroy him even if she begins to suspect he is against her. Hohenheim will have no such qualms.

Of course Dante kept track of Hohenheim, Envy had been going through her desk while she was away, he hadn't been looking for Hohenheim specifically, he had been looking for notes on the stone. He may not have been able to do alchemy himself, incapable of activating circles due to his lack of a soul, but he had a decent understanding of it from William's memories. Instead he found Hohenheim's address and the name of a woman, Trisha Elric.

The address lead him to a small village in the east of the country named Resembool. It seemed untouched by the problems of the world. even by the war raging so very close in Ishval, due to the machinations of Pride. Soldiers come through the station on a daily basis but once aay from the station and the train tracks it is again quiet and peaceful. Houses were dotted between fields. It was just a farming village with a small shop, an automail/medical clinic which was slightly unusual and little else. Hohenheim thought he could hide here? Well the villagers were probably too stupid to know anything of his powers, but even then Dante had tracked him down.

Envy does not look like Envy today, today he looks like William Van Hohenheim, a strikingly handsome young man but he stands out less than Envy himself and if he is to kill Hohenheim he knows it will hurt him more if he does so wearing this face.

He heard the light laughter of children and saw three small children, all about five years old running the field he was walking through, he had reasoned the automail mechanics/clinic was a good place to start. A doctor would surely know everyone in town, even though Hohenheim would likely never need to visit one. Two boys and a girl were kicking a ball around. Kids, brilliant, they were less likely to find his asking questions odd than an adult with more sense, and most children are taught to respect their elders.

One of the boys looked up at him as he approached. His heart, or whatever he had instead, homunculi had no souls and lived far beyond a human's natural span chances were his insides weren't the same as a humans, stopped when he saw gold eyes set in the boy's face. William's eyes, Hohenheim's eyes. Such eyes were very very rare, and in this village where he knew Hohenheim had been Envy didn't need to be a genius to put two and two together. So he'd replaced Dante, and Envy too. The other boy had gold eyes too though slightly darker, his hair was darker too, the girl was blond with blue eyes. The other boy may have been Hohenheim's too, so William would have had one, maybe two half brothers but the girl probably wasn't a sister.

"Hey kid come here" he called out. The boy did so. He walked defiantly as if unafraid while the other boy and the girl, kept back, afraid of the stranger.  
"What do you want?" the boy demanded.  
"Don't get smart with me brat. I'm looking for Hohenheim of light. Where is he?" he snarled.  
"Good luck with that, the bastard's not here" the boy said.  
"So where is he?"  
"I have no idea. You're too late. That bastard abandoned us." The boy said with venom.

So he had abandoned a living human child too. The boy is almost certainly better off without him. Abandonment by a father wasn't fun but as he'd murdered his first son, even if William's death had probably been an accident the fault was his.

"Is he your father? You look like him?" Envy asks though he knows the answer.  
"Yeah, and I wish I didn't. Al looks more like Mum I wish I did too."  
Al, the other boy, so he was a son of Hohenheim too then.  
"My name is William" Envy says. He can't call himself Envy, it will raise questions.  
"Edward Elric" the boy said, he didn't use the name Van Hohenheim, that was interesting "that's my little brother Alphonse and our friend Winry" he said gesturing to the boy and girl who stood staring at them.  
"Could I speak to your mother?" William asks next,he wanted to see the woman who had stolen Hohenheim's heart. Trisha Elric, maybe she knew where the bastard had gone so he followed Edward and Alphonse home. The girl Winry dissapearing off into the automail clinic.

Trisha Elric was an attractive woman, but Envy suspected most of that was youth rather than true beauty. She smiled easily, seemed warm and friendly but such women are not so rare as to make her remarkable. He could see why she would be seen as a catch by most men in the village but failed to see what attracted an ancient alchemist like Hohenheim, aside from the fact she was ordinary, and very different from Dante.

However, if Trisha was ordinary her sons were truly were remarkable, both seemed to have inherited the best from both their parents, Trisha's delicate features and Hohenheim's golden hair and eyes. They were beautiful boys, as William had been. As Envy desperately tried not to be.

He questions Trisha about Hohenheim but she sees William's gold hair and gold eyes and asks about them. So Envy tells them he is William, Hohenheim's son.  
"Let me guess" he says with deceptive kindness despite the cruelty of his words "he never told you about me." He tells Trisha a very very carefully edited version of his life story, how Hohenheim left Dante seven years ago, shortly after he met her. He tells Trisha he doesn't blame her which is true. He doesn't care about Trisha one way or another, he even doubts its her Hohenheim loves, rather suspecting its her ordinary nature that attracted him. He left after all. Maybe he got bored.

Trisha knows about Hohenheim's immortality, though she doesn't seem to know how he did it. Maybe the bastard had feared her rejection if she knew the truth. Apparently he had promised to return, to make himself mortal, told her he regretted it. Maybe Hohenheim had meant it, maybe he didn't. Envy doesn't care it is too late for regret, he'll kill him either way.

"The boys" Envy starts, "did he leave you anything for them at least?" notes, elixir, maybe a stone.  
"He left some money but I haven't spent it" Trisha says "I can earn a living taking in laundry and I want to save it for the boy's education. They're both such bright boys. They read his notes, they can understand them, Edward especially...do you do alchemy too?"  
"No" he says "I understand the basics but I was never any good at getting the circles to work" a half truth.

Trisha invited him to stay the night as there was no inn in Resembool and he accepted. All was awkwardly silent, he has no idea how to make small talk and doesn't really care, while Trisha was clearly upset with Hohenheim and clearly shaken by the relevation of another son she knew nothing about. While busying herself in the kitchen she dropped a plate and it smashed. Edward and Alphonse immediately ran into the room, Edward took some chalk from his pocket and drew a transmutation circle. The plate fixed itself. They were so young and while the alchemy wasn't particularly hard it was one of the first practical transmutations an alchemist in training would learn, once they had waded through books of theory, drawn circle after circle until they could recreate a passable shape freehand, putting broken things back together, first simple things like plates, moving on to more and more complex machinery. This was basic but it was still impressive given Edward was only five and Alphonse a year younger. Hohenheim's sons indeed.

What surprised Envy more than the brilliance of the boys was how they lived, they had a small house. Envy had imagined they would live in a mansion similar to Dante's but although they did not seem to be going hungry they clearly lived in poverty. Not desperate poverty, they had enough to eat, clothes to wear, but no more. There are two bedrooms in the cottage, Trisha sleeps in one, her sons sleep in an attic room with two beds. Envy took Alphonse's bed and Alphonse easily climbed into bed with Edward.

"Are you really our brother?" Edward asks him finally when Trisha is gone and all is silent.  
"You weren't supposed to hear that" Envy says, he had assumed the boys hadn't heard, they hadn't been present when he spoke to Trisha.  
Edward shrugs at this then continues refusing to give an explanation for why he was eavesdropping "he probably does this all the time" there is surprising fire in the young boy's voice "having families and then leaving them."  
"Brother I'm sure that's not true" Alphonse responded he seems more trusting than his elder brother.  
"Don't be so stupid Al" Ed sighed. Then he turned to Envy "I have no interest in the bastard, but I guess I wouldn't mind another brother."

Envy hadn't expected that. Acceptance of a kind. He must be over a hundred years their senior but he finds he wants to be their brother. He tells himself it is William's memories but William never knew them and even if he had had his wish and lived out a normal life span he would have died 300 years before Edward's birth. He would never have got to have his brothers, that makes it easier for Envy to like them, the fact that he can't be a replacement for William if he would have died centuries before their birth. He ignores the fact that had the elixir not killed him, William would probably have accepted them easily himself.

Edward was like their father, for all he claimed he tried not to be, Envy suspected the similarities were instinctual on Edward's part rather than intentional, maybe Edward didn't even know, he was five after all, depending on when the bastard left he may have had no memory of him, though he clearly stuck around long enough for Alphonse to be born, though there was a tiny age gap between the brothers, no more than a year, more like twins. Despite this they were very different in spirit, the elder of the two was fierce and determined he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

Alphonse was kind and gentle, more like William had been and yet they seemed close despite the differences. Both were intelligent, with vocabularies far beyond what Envy would have expected, though if he was completely honest he didn't know many, in fact any, four and five year olds. The boys eyelids start to droop as it gets late, Al slumps against Ed leaning into his elder, though slightly shorter, brother for comfort. Envy tucks them into Ed's bed. He's not sure why he does that rather than leaving them on the floor it isn't like being on the floor will cause them any harm.

In their sleep they instinctively lean into one another. He wanted to hate them, he had considered hurting them, anything to get back at Hohenheim but Hohenheim wasn't here, would he even care? It seemed he didn't limit himself to abandoning homunculi children. And he found he wanted what these boys had, that deep bond. He had never had a bond with anyone. Yes he was envious. Ironically.

He leaves that morning before breakfast but Trisha tells him he can come back if he wants. Since he is her son's brother after all.

And he does come back. He never intended to but he wants to see them again, he finds himself bringing them sweets and alchemy texts that he picks up, both of which are devoured voraciously by both boys, he never really speaks to Trisha again, doesn't go into the house. If he sees her he fakes a smile, exchanges a few polite words but she is unsure how to act around him and he has no interest in her or any wish to pretend. But he does play with Ed and Al sometimes. Occassionally for hours. He had never played before, even William never really played before being an only child and so focused on his alchemy so he doesn't even have his false memories of childish games.

He find he wants to make them happy, he starts to think of Edward and Alphonse as his brother's, not Hohenheim's sons, not William's half brothers. His brothers.


End file.
